With the nation in the midst of its primary season, the U.S. presidential race is fully underway, but as the runners round the final leg, a clear winner remains to be seen for the Democratic Party. After clearing the Super Tuesday hurdle on Feb. 5, Sen. Barack Obama leads with a total of 1,195 delegates, according to CNN.com's delegate count. But Sen. Hillary Clinton is close behind claiming 1,178 delegates. With 15 states remaining in the primary season, the winner for Democratic nominee for president is still anyone’s guess.
With a close contest, the candidates are looking toward a certain demographic that could swing the vote in their favor. The numbers of youth voters have increased in both the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, making the voice of America’s youngest voting citizens a significant determining factor in the presidential race, according to Student Public Interest Research Group’s (PIRG) New Voters Project.
Logging in to the younger generation
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Based on numbers taken by the National Election Pool, voters aged 18-29 were between nine and 15 percent of the total vote in many Northeast states that voted on Super Tuesday. (Photo illustration by Brielle Domings) |
On Super Tuesday, young voters played a significant role in the primaries in which they claimed between nine and 15 percent of the votes, according to the National Election Pool.
In many states, the youth played a part in determing the winner of each state, according to the Student PIRG New Voters Project Web site. In 11 of 14 states, the winning Republican candidate also won the youth vote. On the Democratic side, Sen. Obama won the youth vote in all of the states he won, according to the Web site.
There are a few key reasons that factor into the surge of young voters in the past seven years, says Sujatha Jahagirdar, program director of the Student Public Interest Research Group’s (PIRG) New Voters Project. The candidates are succeeding at informing young voters both by talking to youth on the ground and connecting with one of the generation’s most popular forms of media: the Internet.
Web sites such as Facebook and MySpace have encouraged youth to become more involved in the elections. Facebook provides an elections application that allows students to be tuned into the election while they are checking their wall for new posts or joining the newest group.
MySpace teamed up with MTV on the Saturday before Super Tuesday allowing youth to ask the candidates questions in a television special called Closing Arguments: A Presidential “Super” Dialogue (watch).
“I think Facebook and MySpace provide a venue to get involved in the elections,” Jahargidar says.
Most students are wary of the potential Facebook has as a viable source for information on
elections.
“Personally since I was going to vote anyway, I can’t really say or not whether Facebook affected that decision at all but I know that even if I’m in groups that have certain political stance to them, I never look at them,” junior Miryam Andrews-Ohlman says.
“Clicking ‘join’ on a Facebook group doesn’t mean that you’re involved in the election,” says junior Molly Roy, former president of the College Democrats.
Jahargidar also emphasizes the importance of the on the ground campaigning where candidates are coming and meeting with youth to discuss the issues.
“This generation is more dialed in and tuned in than others,” she says.
A not so “super” Tuesday knight
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First-years Gerhard Meyer and Kris Perkins watch the results of Super Tuesday in the Alumni Hall basement. (Photo by Brielle Domings) |
During the days leading up to Super Tuesday, the St. Michael’s College Conservatives advertised getting together to watch the results in the Alumni basement. Only two students showed up.
First-year Kris Perkins, president of the College Conservatives, attributes this to the fact that many students have a lot of work or other meetings to go to and can’t always make it to these events.
The College Conservatives are currently the only group on campus with a political affiliation. The College Democrats were a club at the beginning of last year, but due to lack of interest, the club disbanded, Roy says.
Roy thinks that if there were a group this year, there might be more interest as it is an election year, she says.
Andrews-Ohlman doesn't find she discusses the election with other students on campus, she says.
“I hardly hear people talk politics at all,” Andrews-Ohlman says. “The only person that I really talk politics with is my boyfriend from home.”
Roy disagrees with the lack of interest in the election on this campus. In most of her classes, which are political science and economics courses, students are actively discussing the elections before the beginning of class, Roy says.
“I don’t think that the majority of students are motivated to go out and participate in a campaign,” she says.
Roy says many students will stay informed by watching debates and keeping on top of the election.
Someone on campus could get students more informed by providing information on how to register to vote or giving them the chance to do it right on campus, she says.
“A single, motivated student could do that,” Roy says. “All they have to do is call around, try and get someone for a certain time and set up an Alliot table.”
Despite the apathetic trend at St. Michael’s, voting rates are higher among college students, Jahargidar says.
Being on a campus where youth are able to talk about the elections in their classes and attend forums and debates gives students more opportunities to stay informed on what is going on, she says.
While the College Conservatives don’t have plans to inform students about registering to vote, the group would like to bring more conservative speakers to campus, Perkins says.
“The purpose of my club is to make a more moderate presence on campus,” he says.
“I feel like both ideologies need a fair shot for students to make an educated judgment and right now all the speakers and programs are very liberal,” says first-year Gerhard Meyer, vice-president of the College Conservatives. “I think we need to bring some conservative balance just so students can hear both sides out.”
First time in the voting booth
For the majority of St. Michael’s students, this is the first election in which they have the opportunity to vote.
“It feels pretty cool because this is such an important election after eight years of the Bush regime and because we have a first, truly potential female candidate and black candidate and that’s history in the making,” Andrews-Ohlman says.
While Perkins, a Romney supporter, is not happy about the results of Super Tuesday or the days that followed, he still plans to vote in the Vermont primary, he says.
“I’m looking at maybe voting third party,” he says. “It would take a lot for me to vote Democrat.”
While participating in the elections is important, students agree that staying informed is important.
“Even if you vote and you don’t know any of the candidates or what they do, how meaningful is that vote?” Roy says.
"Even if you vote and you don't know any of the candidates or what they do, how meaningful is that vote?" |
-Molly Roy, St. Michael's junior |
Junior John Lucy would like students to look beyond the mainstream media for their information, as he believes there is a bias towards certain candidates.
Perkins agrees with Lucy and thinks most media, especially those targeted toward youth, tend to be liberal-minded.
“I think it’s your obligation as a voting citizen to read a variety of sources,” Perkins says.